A Parameterized Bounded-Depth Frege is Not Optimal

A general framework for parameterized proof complexity was introduced by Dantchev, Martin, and Szeider [2007]. There the authors show important results on tree-like Parameterized Resolution—a parameterized version of classical Resolution—and their gap complexity theorem implies lower bounds for that system. The main result of the present paper significantly improves upon this by showing optimal lower bounds for a parameterized version of bounded-depth Frege. More precisely, we prove that the pigeonhole principle requires proofs of size nΩ(k) in parameterized bounded-depth Frege, and, as a special case, in dag-like Parameterized Resolution. This answers an open question posed in [Dantchev et al. 2007]. In the opposite direction, we interpret a well-known technique for FPT algorithms as a DPLL procedure for Parameterized Resolution. Its generalization leads to a proof search algorithm for Parameterized Resolution that in particular shows that tree-like Parameterized Resolution allows short refutations of all parameterized contradictions given as bounded-width CNFs.